Less work helps harvest
Less work helps harvest
In the latest in our autumn
revisits to farmers weeklys
barometer farms,
Andrew Blake reports from
Scotland on crop
establishment in Ross-shire
AFTER the second-latest harvest in his 14 years at Pitmaduthy and Newmore Farms, Kildary, outgoing manager Tom Robb is relieved to have only a third of his normal winter crop area to drill.
With the 405ha (1000 acres) near Inverness changing hands on Nov 28, and the new owners cropping plans still largely undecided, only 40ha (100 acres) are to be sown under the transfer agreement. Any further work required is expected to be carried out by contractors.
"We are three weeks behind normal and our cut-off drilling date up here is Oct 10. We start to lose yield fast after that," says Mr Robb.
But while there is less to sow, the uncertainty over future cropping is frustrating, he says.
Normally worn out rotational grass and first wheat stubbles would have allowed the farms two ploughs to make a start on preparing the land. But the only scheduled crops are first wheats after spring oilseed rape, which was unlikely to be ready to cut until this week.
"It means we havent been able to take advantage of the wet weather thats been holding up combining. If we still had 300 acres to drill, as last year, Id be saying help!"
Mr Robb is even unsure which varieties he may be asked to drill. Given the choice he would probably stick to Riband. Despite having access to trials results from SAC/Scottish Agronomy, he is unconvinced that anything else suitable for his local distilling outlet at Invergordon would yield as well.
His own results from this years protracted harvest with moistures up to 26% are unclear. "But Riband does very well for us and we have had over 4t/acre in other years. Our agronomist, Doug Limburn from Robertson Crop Services, who will carry on advising, suggests they may want to try one of the new hybrids."
Concern that wild oats might spread on the farm rules out farm-saving, and normally about 40% of the certified seed used is over-yeared. "We cant rely on getting it up from down south in time for early sowing," he explains.
Last year, when there were second wheats, some seed treatment was Jockey (fluquinconazole + prochloraz) against take-all, the balance being Sibutol Secur (bitertanol + fuberidazole + imidacloprid). This year, because everything is after the oilseed break, he expects the latter will be the sole dressing.
"We find Secur useful insurance – not against slugs – they arent usually a problem. But we do sometimes have to spray for BYDV up here, especially when there is a bit of an aphid green-bridge from couch in the grassland."
Not finished yet…Wet weather means harvest is the second-latest in 14 years for Scottish barometer farmerTom Robb. But less autumn drilling has eased the pressure considerably.
FARMINKILDARY
• Sweeping autumn changes.
• Sowing workload eased.
• First wheats frustration.
• Redundancy planning.